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The discovery
of three different ancient scripts in Bronze Age Crete - hieroglyphic,
Linear
A, and Linear B - is not only important from a linguistic standpoint,
but
also for historic data which they have revealed (and may still reveal)
about
Bronze Age culture throughout the Aegean. Deposits of tablets, seals,
and
seal impressions have been uncovered at palace sites throughout Crete,
including
Knossos, Phaistos, Agia Triadha, Khania, Malia, and Petras.
Minoan Hieroglyphic Scripts: The
earliest Minoan writing is
the Cretan hieroglyphic script used on sealstones and clay accounting
documents
(Packard 1974). This early syllabic script evolved by 1900 BC during
the
Middle Minoan period, and was used co ntinuously, through the destruction of the
Minoan
palaces in ca.1450 BC.
Fig.1: Detail of a clay bar with hieroglyphic
inscriptions from Petras
(photo: Erik Hallager).
At Petras, in northeastern Crete, an archive of
hieroglyphic documents has
been found dating from the Protopalatial period of Middle Minoan IIA-Middle Minoan IIB
(1900-1800
BC), along with numerous potters' marks which continue Early Minoan
practices.
The Petras hieroglyphic deposit includes 2 four-sided bar inscriptions
(fig.1), 9 medallions, and impressions from 40 different seals (see Tsipopoulou, this issue).
Phaistos Disk: The proto-syllabic
script upon the Phaistos Disk (fig.2) is distinctive
and may
have originated outside of Crete. Some of its symbols (such as a
soldier
wearing a  crested helmet) seem foreign to Minoan culture. Resemblances
have
been seen with a roughly contemporary Hittite hieroglyphic script from
Turkey,
which was used for Luvian, an Indo-European language (Duhoux 1977). The
242
figures were stamped with sealstones on both sides of the disk starting
from
the edge and leading towards the center. The Phaistos Disk, whose
content
may be literary or ceremonial, probably dates from the Middle Minoan IIB period
(17th
century BC).
Fig.2: The Phaistos Disk, stamped on both sides
with a hieroglyphic
script as yet undeciphered (Herakleion Museum; photo: Athena Review).
Linear A (fig.3) seems to have evolved
from hieroglyphs by
about 1850-1700 BC, as Evans (1895) first pointed out, with original
pictograms
reduced to cursive strokes or lines (hence the name "linear"). Linear A
documents
took many forms from multi-word clay tablets to the more common
nodules,
roundels, and sealings stamped with only a few characters. Occurring at
a
wide variety of sites (palace and non-palace) from Knossos in central
Crete
to the islands of Thera and Samothrace, most evidence of Linear A's use
for
administrative purposes dates from Middle Minoan IIB- Late Minoan IB (1750-1475 BC). The most
abundant
Linear A deposits have been found at Agia Triadha, Khania, Knossos,
Phaistos,
and Malia. Other sites include Zakros,
Gournia,
Petras, Arkhanes, Myrtos-Pyrgos, Tylissos, Kea Milos, Palaikastro,
Thera,
and Samothrace (Schoep 1995).
Very few Linear A documents have been discovered in
situ. Destruction of
upper levels by earthquakes or fire caused the artifacts to fall to
lower
levels, thus moving them from their original location.
The largest single deposits were found at Agia Triadha
in two buildings
containing about 150 tablets and 861 nodules. Knossos' Temple of the
Repositories, excavated by Evans in 1903, revealed 150 Linear A seal
impressions
 and three disks, dating from Middle Minoan IIIB-Late Minoan IA. Khania has produced Linear A
archives
with lists and censuses on 97 clay tablet fragments, 122 roundels, and
28
nodules (see Vlasaki, this issue). Examples at Phaistos include four
flat-based
nodules, four roundels, and one sealing on a chest which dates to Middle Minoan IIB,
the time of a great palatial destruction. Linear A usage seems to have
terminated
somewhat abruptly towards the end of the Late Minoan IB period, with the final
palatial
destructions on Crete.
Fig.3: Linear A text from Knossos on a clay tablet (Herakleion
Museum; photo:
Athena Review).
Linear
B: Used at Knossos and Khania in Late Minoan times when Crete
was
occupied by Mycenaeans from the Greek mainland, Linear B (fig.4)
evolved
directly from the Minoan Linear A, whose characters the Mycenaeans then
adapted
to their own language. It is best represented at various sites on
Greece
including Mycenae and Pylos, which have yielded archives of thousands
of
tablets. Linear B was successfully deciphered in the 1950s by Michael
Ventris
(Chadwick 1958; 1989), who recognized it as a syllabic writing system
used
for an early form of Greek spoken by Mycenaeans.
Like Linear A, Linear B served bureaucratic or
record-keeping purposes, as
in  palace inventories, censuses, or taxation accounts. Unlike Linear A,
Linear
B used horizontal lines or registers to separate each entry. The
transliteration
of certain examples of Linear A indicates that their contents did not
differ
drastically from Linear B. The entries were usually made in a list-like
format
and prefaced with numbers tabulating the records. Both types of tablets
cited
elements of daily life, such as livestock (sheep, pigs, goats, cows),
religious
rituals or ceremonies associated with palace life, food and drink (such
as
wine used in celebrations), the harvesting of wheat and barley,
weaponry,
and tabulations of men and women who had contributed significantly to
palace
life or military exploits. Also revealed are Late Minoan site names,
including
ko-no-so (Knossos) and a-mi-mi-so (Amnissos).
Fig.4: Linear B text from Knossos (Herakleion
Museum cat. #87;
photo: Athena Review).
While Linear B can be accurately read as an archaic
Greek dialect, it remains
unknown which language(s) either Linear A or Minoan hieroglyphics
represented.
Eventually, their successful decoding may shed invaluable historical
insights
on the specific details of Minoan daily life, including trade, farming,
administrative practices, ritual, and perhaps names of individuals,
rulers,
and datable events.
References:
Chadwick, Michael 1958; 1989
Duhoux 1977
Evans, Arthur C. 1895
Packard, David 1974
Schoep 1995
This article appears on page 21 in Vol.3 No.3 of Athena
Review.
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